My kid wouldn't read anything for months. I mean nothing. We'd get those reading logs back from school with blank boxes, and I'd feel that knot tighten in my stomach every time. I'd suggest books and get eye rolls. I'd buy things that sat untouched on the nightstand. I was starting to think we'd never find something she'd actually want to read.
Then one random Tuesday, she picked up a fantasy book at the library because the cover had a dragon on it. Just like that. And something clicked.
Here's the thing about fantasy that I never understood until I watched my kid actually read one. It doesn't feel like reading. It feels like stepping into another world where the rules are different and anything can happen. For kids who think reading is boring or maybe just not for them, fantasy offers this escape hatch into something exciting. There's stakes, action, characters doing extraordinary things. It pulls you in in a way that realistic fiction sometimes just can't, especially for kids who feel like reading is a chore.
There's this one called Minecraft: The Dragon where a young adventurer teams up with a newborn dragon to save her town from raids. Short, fast-paced, and if your kid is into video games at all, the whole world already feels familiar. My daughter read that in two days. Two days. She hadn't finished anything in months.
Then there's The Coat, which sounds weird but that's exactly why it worked. It's about a coat stuffed with straw that comes alive and gets angry. It's weird and silly and only half a point, so it doesn't feel intimidating at all. Sometimes that's exactly what a reluctant reader needs, something that doesn't look like a commitment.
The Princess Hyacinth book is another good one. It's about a princess who floats unless she's weighed down, and it's funny and sweet and really short. We also found Some Kind of Happiness, which is about a girl who escapes into her writing, and my kid actually related to that in a way I didn't expect.
What I learned is this: stop worrying about what's 'appropriate' or what will 'help them grow as readers' and just find something they'll actually open. Short books. Books with pictures. Books about stuff they're already obsessed with. Books that don't look like homework disguised as a story. The AR level doesn't matter nearly as much as whether they'll actually finish it. One book. That's the goal. Just get them to finish one and see what happens.
So if you're in that place where reading feels impossible, I'm not going to tell you it gets easy. But I will say this: keep trying different things. One book is all it takes. One weird little story about a floating princess or a angry coat might be the thing that changes everything.